Otmoor Reserve

We are working hard to make our nature reserves safe and ready for our staff, visitors and wildlife. Many have now re-opened in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, although some facilities such as toilets are not yet available. All our other reserves remain closed for now. Please see our COVID-19 updates page for the latest information (link below).

Address: RSPB Otmoor, Otmoor Lane, Beckley, Oxford, OX3 9TD

Grid ref: SP570126

See our updates page to see which reserves are open.

Otmoor is a haven for wildlife in the heart of Oxfordshire. The visitor trail leads you alongside an expansive floodplain grazing marsh, home to wading birds and wildfowl year round. Hedgerows, bustling with warblers and songbirds, and the rustling reedbed add to the immersive experience of being on the "moor".

Plan your visit

The reserve is open from dawn to dusk. Visitor numbers can be high, particularly at weekends. If you are able, please try to visit the reserve during the week to avoid disappointment.

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: Free

Children: Free
Free entrance for first child
Free entrance for under 5s

Student: Free

Free entrance for carers: Yes

Car park cost: £2 (from 1 July 2019). Free for RSPB members and blue badge holders

Facilities

Car park
Pushchair friendly

Accessibility

Download full accessibility statement (PDF)

How to get here

By train

The nearest railway station is in the village of Islip and you can access the reserve via the Oxfordshire Way (2.1 mile walk).

By bus

Buses run infrequently between Oxford and the village of Beckley (just over a mile from the reserve). For more details see oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/oxfordshire-way.

By bike

Otmoor is connected to surrounding villages by bridleways, as well as local roads. Bike racks can be found in the reserve car park.

By road

Otmoor is off the B4027, which links the A34 and the A40. The reserve is 10 minutes from these main roads. After entering Beckley, take Otmoor Lane next to the Abingdon Arms and follow to end of the lane. The reserve postcode is OX3 9TD.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps

RSPB reserves on Google Earth

-14 degrees, Overcast

Visitor numbers can be high, particularly at weekends. If you are able, please try to visit the reserve during the week and car share where possible to avoid disappointment. The reserve can be found by following Otmoor lane to the very end where you will find our car park (OX3 9TD). Please be aware that parking is very limited. If the car park is full please do not park along Otmoor Lane, as this can block access for emergency vehicles.

Contact Otmoor Reserve

RSPB Otmoor, c/o Folly Farm, Beckley, Oxford, OX3 9UR
otmoor.admin@rspb.org.uk
01865 351163

What will you see?

Our star species

Lapwing

Lapwing breed on site in excellent numbers and can be seen scraping nests out in spring or performing their aerial display, calling ‘peewit’, as they go. More than 3000 spend the winter here as a safe place to feed up before moving back to their breeding grounds.

Redshank

Redshank arrive back to the moor in March, their piping call is often the first sign of their presence before you spot their red legs, which give them their name, as they move around the muddy edges of the fields in search of food.

Snipe

Listen around dawn and dusk for the strange ‘drumming’ noise that the snipe makes to attract a mate. On still spring and summer days they can be seen flying to a height and then falling, producing this drumming sound as they drop.

Marsh harrier

Marsh harriers can regularly be seen hunting over the reedbed and surrounding fields. Look out in the breeding season for the food passes as a male drop’s food to the female below who then takes it feed their young to feed.

Golden plover

Golden plover return to the reserve in autumn to spend the winter on site. They can be seen in their thousands, wheeling and tumbling in the sky, often evading a predator. Look at them on the ground as they moult to their striking breeding plumage in early spring before they head back to the uplands to breed.

Look out for lapwings performing their tumbling display over the fields, redshanks probing for food in the scrapes and snipe "drumming" in the sky at dawn and dusk.

Grass snakes and common lizards bask out in the early morning sun and black and brown hairstreak butterflies can be found feeding and laying eggs along the blackthorn hedgerows.

Watch the flocks of golden plovers and lapwings as they perform aerial displays, evading a peregrine or marsh harrier.

Watch redwings and fieldfares feasting on the berries in the hedgerows and look out for barn and short-eared owls hunting over the fields.

About Otmoor Reserve

Habitat

Otmoor is made up of wet grassland, reedbed and blackthorn hedgerows. The wet grassland supports nationally significant lowland breeding waders with regularly over 100 pairs, including lapwing, redshank and snipe. The wet grassland is also home to huge numbers of wintering wildfowl and waders. Over 4000 golden plover, lapwing and wigeon, along with pintail, teal, shoveler and geese and swans call Otmoor their winter home.

In the summer, both black and brown hairstreak butterflies can be found feeding and laying eggs along the blackthorn hedges. These are managed rotationally to keep them in top condition for 2 of Oxfordshire's most important butterfly species.

The reedbed has become home to bittern and marsh harrier who have returned as breeding birds to Oxfordshire for the first in over 200 years. Other species found breeding on the reedbed include common terns, reed warblers, water rails, grey herons and Cetti’s Warblers.

Conservation

Otmoor is nearly 400ha of wet grassland, reedbed and hedgerows. Vast areas of wet grassland is fed by ditches, criss crossed with wet features and play host to vast numbers of waders. Lapwing, redshank and snipe all require slightly different nesting habitats and feeding requirements, so it is a balancing act with tractors and grazing animals, trying to produce the right conditions for these species every year.

The 22ha reedbed was all hand planted by volunteers. Every year we cut large sections to get rid of old reed and to promote new growth, not just of reed but of other species to create a real variation of vegetation. Bitterns, marsh harriers, water rail and a whole host of warblers come to the Otmoor reedbed annually to breed and raise their young.

There are over 9 miles of hedgerows on Otmoor and large sections of these are coppiced annually in winter to promote new growth that is the suitable size for brown hairstreak butterflies to lay their eggs. We aim to produce a variation in ages that creates an excellent mosaic of habitat that is suitable for a range of wildlife.

Site information

Nestled close to Oxford city, Otmoor is a haven from the hustle and bustle of modern life, where wildlife and tranquility reign. One of the largest inland wetland complexes in the country, Otmoor is home to a huge amount of wildlife, rare species and impressive wildlife spectacles.

Trails lead visitors to the heart of the reserve where wildlife is abundant, and a purpose-built hide and two viewing screens allow visitors to get close views of the nature that calls Otmoor home.

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Otmoor Reserve